


Freedom

by AlchemK



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1930s, Alternate Universe- Modern Fantasy, M/M, pan's labyrinth au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-30
Updated: 2019-05-30
Packaged: 2020-03-30 01:45:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,961
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19032202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlchemK/pseuds/AlchemK
Summary: A PAN'S LABYRINTH AU - you do not need to have watched the movie to understand what's going on!!It's 1932, androids exist, made not by human hands, but by Something Else.Amanda Stern brings her son Connor Stern to a human base so that soldiers can protect her from the fight between humans and androids. Meanwhile, Connor finds that there's something more in that forest than meets the eye.And what of Lieutenant Anderson? Can Connor confide in him as well despite the chains his mother keeps his mind wrapped up in?





	Freedom

_A long time ago, in the underground realm, where there are no lies or pain,_

_there lived an android who dreamed of the human world._

_He dreamed of blue skies, soft breeze, sunshine, and bright eyes._

_One day, eluding the keepers that protected the rest of the androids from the humans, the android escaped._

_Their god became angry, but curious. Leaving the home he had created for them meant punishment, but the god wanted to see the life of this android with open eyes. He blinded the escaped android with brightness, erasing every trace of his past from his memory. He forgot who he was, where he came from._

_His body suffered, but his god knew better than to let him perish so easily to the elements. The android started life anew. The light by his forehead vanished. His people would wait for him to return to them until their pumps gave their last beats, until the world stopped turning…_

 

_Still, innumerable years later, androids began to trickle out from the underground, and their god soon allowed them to live above with the humans. Only, it would be the decision of the humans whether or not they wanted to live peacefully._

_They didn’t. And the god watched with intrigued, amused eyes._

 

DETROIT, 1932.

 

WAR CONTINUES TO RAVAGE MICHIGAN.

 

HIDDEN IN THE FORESTS AND MOUNTAINS OF DETROIT, ARMED ANDROIDS FIGHT THE HUMANS FOR FREEDOM. HUMAN MILITARY POSTS ARE ESTABLISHED TO EXTERMINATE THE RESISTANCE.

 

Connor sat in the automobile, trying to keep his mind off of the jittering and shuddering of the seats with the rocky path beneath them. Swatches of green and brown of the forest around them went past his right side in blurs, his eyes fixated on each passing patch of natural color in hopes that he could focus on something else; the scenery was beautiful, but he would have been a fool to think that they would stop the drive just so he could admire the nature around them. It had been four hours in the car already- they wanted to get out of it as soon as they possibly could. The windowless border let the cool wind continuously breathe on him in wisps that coordinated with each bounce of the car, bringing in wafts of greeny, woody scent. Spiritless, brown eyes, half-lidded against the tickle of the breeze, shifted to glance down at the open book in his lap. Pages fluttered haphazardly, Connor shifting his thumb over a centimeter to keep the page down as he continued to read where he left off. The book, small but dense, sat neatly in one hand, his other hand placed at his opposite elbow to support the shaking text. On the floor in front of his planted feet rested more books, stacked up and kept together with a thready string tied neatly around its entirety.

 

“I don’t understand why you had to bring so many books, Connor.” His mother, sitting on his left, finally broke the vocal silence. Connor didn’t bother to look over at her, staying wordless as he continued to scan his eyes over the printed words. He didn’t need to look at her to know that she still looked as elegant and commanding as ever, back straight as she sat up, scanning her eyes over him in vague disdain. Her black hair, done in a complicated bun sitting atop her head that Connor never understood, was slightly messy with the breeze stirring it occasionally. She sounded just as antsy to leave the cramped automobile space as well. “We’re going to the country- the outdoors. There will be plenty of fresh air,” she continued. Connor looked up finally, turning to glance at her. Just as he did, she reached over to take the book out of his hand. Her eyes glossed over the pages before she closed it, looking over the plain cover.

“Local legends? You’re too old to be filling your head with fairy tales like that.”

Blinking his eyes, Connor kept silent, leaning his elbow against the car door, the point of his cloth-covered elbow sticking out of the window frame barely. This world was full of things that science couldn’t explain, there was nothing childish about being curious. She must have conveniently forgotten about androids, then, for the sake of deriding him. Androids, humanoid beings that were created out of seemingly inorganic methods. Not by humans, but by the hands of some other power, perhaps. Unnatural, but living all at once. At least, that’s what some believed. Others believed them to be lifeless, only powered by some unknown source of power. They didn’t need to breathe, didn’t need to eat. Though, Connor couldn’t say what he believed definitively. Especially not now when his mother had just turned his mind off, the young man staring out the window, thinking of little else except for when they would get there, what it would look like. It was a military base, after all. He couldn’t expect much from it.

He gave a sigh, watching the vertical brown streaks in the verdant walls trail by.

 

It had only been about ten minutes before the automobile had come to a rolling stop, rocks and dirt crunching beneath the tires. The view right beside him outside the window indicated to him that they hadn’t reached the base, given the densely wooded area that flanked them still. His mother opened the door and stepped out, Connor watching her for a moment before his eyes slithered down to where she had just risen from, seeing his book sitting there for him. Taking it back and stuffing it into his coat, he opened the car door on his side a well, getting out. His muscles ached, Connor stretching his legs and feeling his knees pop.

“I was feeling nauseous,” his mother said, leaning against the hood of the automobile. “Water, please,” she requested. Immediately, a uniformed man went to fetch a canteen. Connor darted his eyes over her weary figure for a moment before he walked a couple steps farther from the car, feeling the dirt crumble under his every step, hearing the bugs buzz and chirp all around him as he took in a breath of green without the wind of the drive. Brown eyes swept over the forest that surrounded their path, softly looking up to see cloud-packed sky peeking out from behind greedy, grasping leaves and branches, growing as if to fill every open space possible. Maybe someday this forest would be full of branches and trunks and leaves. But not while he was on this world. He felt like there had been a point in his life where this forest had already been so full and lush and green and yellow- before it was slashed down hastily to make way for human pathways. But he had never been there before, had never trekked through it to know it then and to know it at another time other than now. Connor could come to enjoy the atmosphere he offered, he supposed. Rocks that scattered in the deeper forest and along the side of the path were tangled tapestries of moss and weeds. He soon started to take comfort in the crunches of dead leaves covering the path beneath his feet, Connor paying more mind in how heavy the heels of his feet fell, how heavy he pressed the balls of his feet down as he felt the crackle travel up his toes to his fingers and his cold, autumn cheeks.

Straying off the dirt trail, he peered through the army of trees, the lot of them so dense that their trunks seemed to form a woody wall in his vision. Learning to the side to try to find an opening in their defenses, his brows rose slowly as he caught sight of grey rocks in the distance. A mere glimpse, but enough for him to want to pursue his unmoving target. Lifting a foot to step into the shrubs and bushes that lined the path, he was about to step down until he heard his mother’s voice again.

“Connor.”

He stopped, placing his foot down. He didn’t need to look at her.

“Get in the car. We’re almost there.”

 

\------

 

The cars came to a slow stop and Connor drifted his eyes away from the window to glance past the driver’s head in front of them. His mother didn’t wait even a breath to get out of the vehicle, opening the door and stepping out. Her delicate shoes seemed to melt away in the face of her powerful stature, not in physicality, but in aura. Her presence exuded sheer dominance, as if she could keep her bony wrists from snapping under a vicious with nothing but her iron will. A pure juxtaposition of physicality with mentality, dare he even say some sort of spirituality as well.

Standing in front of the car door his mother had just stepped out of was a man in uniform, hands behind his back and his thin nose in the air as if he knew something that nobody else did. Those with power often held secrets, or at least felt like they held secrets- power itself was a secret to most anyways. Connor met eyes with the man from across the car as he stood on the other side, holding the stack of his books in his arms. The man offered him a brief glare, Connor returning the quiet hostility with unfettered innocence, his eyes then dropping back down to look at the fringed papers of his books in his arms, taking in the comforting smell of aging paper and dusty woven covers.

“Amanda,” the man greeted curtly, stiffly. He held out a hand for the poised woman, Amanda taking it gracefully. She was anything but delicate, and everyone there knew that. Physically, their hands may have been a juxtaposition. Though, in status, it was debatable who stood higher. Connor may have said it was his mother, but that, possibly, was bias speaking.

“Captain,” she returned slowly, her voice weighted with a drawl of instant dominance. “Connor.” A tone that was more abrupt. Less patient. “Come greet Captain Perkins.” Two foot soldiers came to lead her away, presumably to her room. Connor was left there, silent and awkward as he walked around the car to stand before the man.

 

They stood at the same height. Their eyes met, the Captain’s more hostile in the silent battle against the more placated ones in front of him.

“Connor,” the man greeted, holding out a gloved hand for him to take. The teen looked down at the hand for a moment, shifting so that he could hold his books more firmly without them slipping out of his grasp when he removed a hand to use in the gesture. Their grasps were equally firm as Connor presented his right hand. Though, it took him a moment before he could bring his eyes up from their moving hands to meet gazes with him again. He would rather not look him in the eye, but he knew his mother would scold him until the sun rose the next day if she heard that he was being rude, unintentionally or not.

The uniformed man leaned in, their hands still grasped. Connor remained unmoving.

“Don’t get in the way, boy. You’re only exempt from fighting because of your mother.”

Connor kept his eyes forward as the voice spoke by his ear. The Captain moved away, giving him a last acrid glance before walking back to his men, gloved hands behind his back. Connor only stood there, books in his hands as he watched the man march away down the grassy hill towards the base.

He didn’t want to go. But when did his desires ever matter?

**Author's Note:**

> follow me on instagram (@alchemtk) to see art for this! also spoilers, since my art goes through some part of it chronologically that has extended beyond what i've written so far 
> 
> thanks for reading!!! i love questions!!!! so please,,, ask a n y


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